Mobile devices for communicating media such as video and/or audio signals are seemingly ubiquitous in modern society. Such devices enable a user to communicate with another via audio and/or video, receive images, audio, and video from servers of desired content, and transmit images, video, and audio to others.
Typically, such devices use one of two network types to communicate: mobile telephone networks (such as GSM networks); and Internet protocol (IP) networks (such as IEEE 802.11 networks (or Wireless Fideility networks)). For example, a user of a modern mobile telephone can receive streaming video and audio (such as television programs), transmit movies made using the telephone, and even participate in a video telephone call. Similarly, mobile computing devices that are connected to 802.11 networks are able to do the same things.
Recently devices capable of connecting to both of these types of networks have become available. The existence of such devices has allowed users to realize the best of both types of networks. For example, mobile telephone networks are wide spread and enable a user to connect to the networks in an extremely large number of places, while 802.11 networks enable a user to realize extremely high speed connections as well as low-cost, or free, connections.
Existing mechanisms, however, do not provide an adequate mechanism to handoff a call from one of these types of networks to another.